


The Princess and the White Rabbit

by mistleto3



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Red Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2016-09-03
Packaged: 2018-08-12 16:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7941640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistleto3/pseuds/mistleto3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kosuke finds a white rabbit, and Anna takes it into her care.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Princess and the White Rabbit

**Author's Note:**

> For my wonderful friend Katie for her birthday- she loves bunnies and Homra, so this is a gift for her <3
> 
> This fic is also available on [Tumblr.](http://mistleto-3.tumblr.com/post/149859968354/the-princess-and-the-white-rabbit)

Mikoto was used to seeing strange things in Homra, and by now they didn’t really faze him. It was early afternoon by the time he finally slunk downstairs, and the bar was filled with the sluggish heat of the late summer. He was greeted by the sight of Anna, sitting on the couch and cradling what appeared to be a ball of white fuzz in her lap. Tatara sat beside her, peering inquisitively at the fluffy mass with a childish grin on his face.

“What's that?” Mikoto asked, his eyebrows furrowing in suspicion.

“A bunny,” Anna replied, her gaze lifting reluctantly away from the creature on her knee to look up at him. Her face was as smooth and expressionless as it usually was, but there was a sort of excited sparkle in her eyes that only those who knew Anna well would pick up on.

Mikoto didn’t bother asking where she got the rabbit from; Kosuke was lurking in the corner of the bar with a sheepish look on his face. Still, at least he hadn’t brought back a horse this time.

“Mikoto, what should I name him?” Anna’s gaze was still fixed on him.

“Whoooa!” Tatara cut in. “We probably shouldn’t let King name any more of your pets,” he pointed out, grimacing at the memory of the pained expression on Anna’s face when Mikoto had chosen the name ‘Basashi,’ for the aforementioned horse.

Anna looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded in agreement. “Tatara should name him then.”

“Hmmm…” He tapped his fingertips against his lips pensively as he gazed at the rabbit, which looked up from where he was snuffling in Anna’s hands to meet his eyes. After a drawn out moment, Tatara announced: “Ooh, I know, we should call him Yuki!”

“Original,” Mikoto remarked at Tatara’s choice to name the white animal _snow._ As he took a seat beside Tatara on the couch, he received a reproachful look.

“Yuki…” Anna repeated slowly, gazing at the creature sitting on her knee thoughtfully, and then she nodded in approval. It seemed to Mikoto that the rabbit had taken a bit of a liking to her; it sat quite calmly on her knee, without fidgeting or showing any desire to escape.

If Mikoto was the type to think about these things (and he wasn’t), he would have concluded that the rabbit bore a great deal of similarity to the girl who had taken him in.  The newly-christened Yuki was an albino, with thick, snowy white fur, interrupted only by a twitching pink nose and inquisitive red eyes.

Of course, Tatara absolutely _was_ the type of person to think about these things, and the next thing he pointed out was: “He sort of looks like you, Anna. It’s like you were meant to have him.”

It was at that point that Izumo strode into the bar, looking somewhat harried. “What’s this I’m hearin’ about more stray animals bein’ brought into my bar? You know people eat here? It’s not sanitary.”

Kosuke shrunk into the corner of the bar, as though hoping he wouldn’t be noticed in the shadows.

“It’s only a bunny, Kusanagi-san,” Tatara said light-heartedly. “I’m sure he won’t cause any trouble.”

Izumo sighed and massaged his temples at the sight of matching sets of puppy-dog eyes directed at him by Anna and Tatara. “Where would we keep a rabbit? It’s not like we have anywhere to put a hutch at the bar,” he pointed out.

“We’d work something out,” Tatara dismissed with a wave of his hand.

“At least tell me the poor thing has water in this heat?” Izumo asked with an exasperated look on his face.

“Anna, will you go get him some water?” Tatara asked, and she gave a quick nod, lifting Yuki out of her lap and setting it on Mikoto’s knee before disappearing behind the bar. The rabbit looked up at Mikoto, as though evaluating him, then rolled onto its side in his lap.

“He likes you,” Tatara pointed out to Mikoto, then giggled at the disgruntled look on his face.

“Where’d ya even get him?” Izumo asked, his head swivelling to fix his stern gaze on Kosuke who, up until now, had seemed quite pleased that he hadn’t been noticed.

“I found him in a park eating dandelions. There were a lot of dogs around, and he’s not very well camouflaged; I didn’t want him to get hurt. I picked a handful of dandelion leaves and went over to him and he came right up to me. Friendly little guy,” Kosuke recounted.

As he spoke, Anna returned with a dish of water and a handful of rocket leaves retrieved from the kitchen. She took a seat beside Mikoto, leaning against his arm as she offered the bunny a leaf, which he sniffed for a moment before taking it gently from her fingers to nibble his way through it.

“He doesn’t exactly seem like a wild animal…” Izumo pointed out. “Like ya said, albinos don’t normally last long by ‘emselves; hunters spot ‘em easily ‘cause they stand out. And he’s too friendly to be wild.”

“You think he’s someone’s lost pet?” Tatara asked.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. Did ya take him to the vet when you found him?” Izumo turned towards Kosuke again.

“No, just brought him straight here.”

“Might be worth takin’ him, seein’ if he has a microchip.”

Tatara nodded solemnly, then glanced towards Anna, whose expression was blank.

“If he belongs to someone, we should reunite him with his owners,” she said quietly.

“Well, that’s that settled then. Kusanagi-san, do you still have that cat carrier from when Fujishima brought that kitten back a few months ago?” Tatara asked.

“It’d be daft of me to get rid of it,” he pointed out, exasperation in his voice. With a sigh, he turned on his heel and headed into the back room to retrieve the carrier, then returned a few moments later and set it on the sofa. “Mikoto, you go with ‘em. Make sure they actually take the rabbit to the vet and they don’t just hide it somewhere so they can keep it.”

Mikoto heaved a heavy, reluctant sigh. “Alright.”

 

Mikoto lingered in the corner of the exam room at the vet’s office with a vaguely sullen expression, as if there was nowhere else he wouldn’t rather be, but Tatara ignored him as Anna lifted the rabbit out of the carry case and set it on the table. As the vet checked Yuki over, Tatara gave a brief retelling of Kosuke’s story about where he was found.

“He seems to be in fine health, if a little skinny; I take it you want me to scan him for a microchip, see if he’s someone’s lost pet?”

“Yes please,” Tatara replied.

The moment the scanner passed over the back of Yuki’s neck, it started beeping.

“Looks like he does belong to somebody after all,” the vet remarked, typing in the identification number from the chip into her computer, and sure enough, the contact details of his owner popped up on the screen.

“Ready to send him home?” Tatara asked, turning to Anna, and she gave a resolute nod.

 

Tatara, Mikoto, and Anna waited at the vet’s office until the rabbit’s owners arrived, a little under an hour after the vet had called them. A woman in her early 30s entered the reception with a little girl in tow who couldn’t have been any older than Anna was when she first joined Homra. The girl seemed shy, half-hiding behind her mother, but as soon as she caught sight of the rabbit sitting in Anna’s lap her eyes brightened.

“Yuki…” she said quietly.

“Yuki?” Tatara asked, tilting his head.

“That’s what she named him,” the girl’s mother explained, nodding towards the rabbit.

“Huh, funny. That’s what we named him too. He’s very sweet, isn’t he?” Tatara replied with an easy smile.

“Mm,” the little girl agreed, approaching Anna tentatively.

Anna offered her a small, reassuring smile, then lifted the rabbit up and lay it gently in her arms, and as soon as she felt Yuki’s fur against her skin, the little girl’s face lit up with a brilliant smile. The rabbit’s nose twitched as it recognised the familiar scent, and it settled into her arms easily.

“Thank you so much for bringing him in. He’s been lost for almost two weeks now; we were beginning to think we’d never find him. She’s been so heartbroken without him,” the mother said, watching her daughter’s grin with a fond look in her eyes.

“It’s no problem at all. I’m glad we could reunite him with his family,” Tatara replied.

“Thank you,” the little girl said, glancing between the three Homra members, her voice quiet. Then her mother thanked them once more as she lay a hand on her daughter’s shoulder and guided her towards the exit. As they crossed the threshold, the girl glanced backwards, shooting a small smile backwards towards Anna, before disappearing through the door.

“I’m glad we brought him here,” Anna decided, and Tatara gave her a proud pat on the shoulder.

“Let’s go home.”


End file.
